Writing Breaks!?!?!?

In Chapter three of the DZS book, the authors discuss that having kids actually retain the content material covered in class can be the teacher's ulitmate challange. They go on to explain that kids only retain 10-30 % of what they read, hear and see. According to the authors, one way to combat this lack of retention is have "writing breaks" every "ten to twenty minutes" to see that students are understanding material.
I do believe that this strategy could work and may try it in my social studies classroom. However, I know when I'm "in a groove" as the teacher, talking about King Henry VIII and how he had two of his wives beheaded...and someone comes over the PA system...I'm ticked! You can't get the students back to where you had them.
Writing breaks may work but I can see them as disruptive too!

This is what I believe...

that being able to express your knowledge, thoughts or understanding in written words is a needed skill, critical to one's success or failure in adult life.

that social studies should play just as large of a part in the writing instruction of students as an english course.

that students should be writing everyday in my class...yes/no OR a,b,c,d isn't enough. Writing in my class should be evidence of comprehension.

that even in this age of technology, writing is still a primary source of communication... and we have to communicate with one another.

Bye Bye Powerpoint

Not really...I have too many things saved on Powerpoint that I like. But I do plan to start using digital stories in my classroom. I hadn't been exposed to the concept until my group met to work on our book trailer...it turned out so good, I went home and created a digital story...just playing around mostly but it turned out really nice. I think that we need to be exploring ways to incorporate technology into our classrooms on a regular basis...there is a need for it. My eyes can sometimes glaze over at the thought of a confusing new technological device (hello iPhone) but once you get by all of the glitz... it's easy to see the usefulness of these ideas and concepts in your classroom.

C-A-T-S: CATS, CATS, CATS

I can totally understand the frustration of the teacher who left the note for the authors in chapter 18...I think all of us can!! I realize that as a first year teacher many things are new and may come as a shock...personally, I couldn't beleive the emphasis that my school placed on the CATS assessment. Don't get me wrong, I realize that they have to...I mean it's what we've got right now and we have to do well. But the status quo isn't good enough! Our kids are forced to take a test that they know has no bearing on their graduation...it's an assessment for the school and the teachers!
The authors in this chapter mention that assessment is a "complex and critical" issue...if that's true, why aren't lawmakers and governments listening to the dissent at the school level? Student assessment in important...but it's the teachers who are held accountable and assessed at every turn. If we are supposed to prepare kids for life...and in life we are accountable for our successes and failures...then don't we need to be practicing (or assessing) a little more student accountability?
Some of you may disagree!

Pedagogy of Confidence

Jackson and Cooper mention, in chapter 16, that the teachers who find success are those who are confident. "Confident teachers use strategies that empower adolescents," they explain, leading me to beleive that I probably haven't empowered students the way I should have during my first year. There were times when I was so unsure about the effectiveness of what I was doing, I would feel like giving up on it in midstream.
In my high school, we have a science teacher who is absolutely amazing in the classroom. She is completely dedicated to her work...that inturn makes her supremely confident in what she's doing. I think we all need to reach a healthy level of dedication to help us be more confident teachers!

Podcasting Vocabulary Skits

I think that having the kids create a podcast displying their knowledge of a particular vocabulary word is a fantastic idea. The kids actually become interested in learning the word...the idea of a skit tends to engage them. My question is, why would the kids benefit more by creating the podcast rather than creating a short skit using the term and acting it out for the class? It seems to accomplish the same thing. I also find the logistics of having kids creating a podcast during class time as a bit difficult. If I can't take them all to the computer lab and I have a pair of students creating the podcast on my computer, what are the rest of them doing? Most of my students wouldn't want to record the skit with 28 of their fellow classmates listening as they do it. Just some issue I have...everyone else may disagree.

Vocabulary in the classroom

We have to teach kids a certain set of vocab words no matter the content we're in. I think some associate vocabulary with the English department and that's the end of it. We looked at some pretty interesting ways to approach vocab in class today.
One thing I use is called an Illustrated Dictionary. I actually stole the ideas, like most of us do, from History Alive, it's a great tool for all of you social studies teachers. For every unit, there is a set of vocab, determined by me, that the student will need to be familiar with. In a three column format the student is to define the term, draw a symbol representing the term and write a sentence explaining why they think that term is important or relevant to the unit. If the student is wrong we will make corrections when we get to that topic. It seems to be pretty effective and the kids generally like it.